Maruti Suzuki India Limited, leading automakers in the country are facing severe constraints where higher input costs are concerned. The company has been absorbing these costs to date but have announced increase in prices of its products from January 2015.

Maruti Suzuki which currently offers a range of cars in India, right from its entry level hatchback Alto 800 to the premium sedan Ciaz, all cars price will be increased with effect from 1st January 2015. This announcement follows similar price hike announced by other automakers such as Hyundai, BMW, GM, Tata Motors and Mahindra.

The company which last increased prices in October 2013 has been absorbing higher input costs, fearing that increasing prices would have an adverse effect on sales in a market that was already not doing too well. However, now left with no other alternative and with other automakers following suit, Maruti Suzuki has announced the price hike which will come into effect from 1st January 2015.

Automakers also held off increasing prices due to the 4-6% cut in excise duty announced early last year. This was valid till the end of June 2014 which was extended through to December 2014. With the government showing no intentions of extending it further, though the industry is demanding extension of the duty benefit, auto companies will be left with no other recourse but to increase pricing even further.

As the news of price hike is already out, dealers are trying to attract / scare car buyers by guessing huge price hike. Though there has been no official word about the actual price hike, Maruti dealer adverts have been misleading car buyers. The adverts from Maruti car dealers claim that the price hike will be in the range of 8-11%.

As you can see in the image above, the advert claims price hike of Alto 800 will be by Rs 17,000; Alto K10 by Rs 22,500; WagonR by 27,500; Swift by 41,500; DZire by 41,500; Ritz by 31,500; Ertiga by 53,500; Celerio by 27,500; Omni by 22,500 and Eeco by 17,500.

Though Ciaz is not included in this list, price of Ciaz will also be increased in January 2015. The cars included in this list are mostly 2013 models, which will continue to be sold at discounted rates even in 2015.

Readers are advised to beware of such adverts in newspapers as they are not the actual prices. These are fictional prices quoted by dealers. Also, there is no reason as to why the discounts won’t continue in 2015, considering the negative sentiment prevailing in the auto industry.